Aid agencies warn sanctions on North Korea could force them to stop work

New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme are having unintended consequences.

They include halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside.

At the same time, some restrictions are meant to sting the country’s elite by crippling the import of luxury goods, such as yachts and expensive cars. But they do not appear to be stopping the well-heeled from living large in the capital Pyongyang.

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Much of the aid group difficulties are linked to the state-run Bank of China’s decision to follow Washington’s lead and sever ties with the North’s Foreign Trade Bank, the main money transfer route for most foreign organisations, UN agencies and embassies in Pyongyang.

With that line cut, aid workers in North Korea say they are left with few other options to receive foreign currency for expenses including rent, bills and salaries for local staff.

Six aid organisations have issued a document warning that they may be forced to suspend their operations if they cannot find ways to access cash.

Gerhard Uhrmacher, of German aid organisation Welthungerhilfe, said that when recent bank transfers failed he managed to keep projects running by routing over £425,000 to Chinese or North Korean accounts in China. He said Welthungerhilfe, which works on agriculture and rural development projects in North Korea, must now resort to carrying cash into the country by hand.

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“It doesn’t give a good impression. We’re trying to be transparent and now we’re more or less forced to do something that doesn’t really look very proper because people who carry a lot of cash are somehow suspect.”

The US State Department said it was aware of the concerns of humanitarian groups and was exploring ways to address them.

But spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the onus was on North Korea to provide for its people and make alternative financial services available to international organisations.

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